More than 30 people, mostly school children returning from a sport meet, were killed on Friday in Morocco when their bus caught fire after a head-on collision with a trailer truck, AFP reports.
The accident in southern Morocco was the deadliest in the North African kingdom since 2012 when a bus plunged into a ravine, killing 42 people.
The early morning collision in the province of Tan-Tan killed at least 33 people, reported MAP news agency quoting local authorities, revising an earlier toll of 31 dead.
They said nine injured people were taken to hospital, but two who were in a serious condition later died.
“A majority of the victims are children aged eight to 14,” a regional official from the sports and youth ministry told AFP.
Private media said the bus was transporting the young athletes and their coaches from a competition in Bouznika, a beach resort in the north between the capital Rabat and Casablanca.
Pictures posted on YouTube and on several news websites showed the mangled wreckage of a bus on fire, and witnesses said that many of the victims had been asleep when the collision occurred.
“It is a horrible accident. The toll is huge. The fire broke out when the bus and the truck collided and then it spread,” social worker El Hassan Mouline told 2M state broadcaster, speaking from the scene.
He said the victims included children who were taking part in a sporting competition, a local athletics champion and an official from the sports and youth ministry.
“The whole team is lost,” Mouline said.
News of the accident triggered panic and parents of children who were on the bus rushed to the hospital in the town of Guelmim, demanding the names of the victims, Medi1TV reported.
But the broadcaster said authorities were still working on identifying the dead.
It also reported that at least four children had survived the tragedy but were being treated at hospital for “third degree burns”.
King Mohamed VI sent a message of condolences to the families and said he would pay for the burials as well as cover the cost of hospital fees for the injured.
